The Family Business
by missiek11
Summary: When you are born Royal no one ever asks "What do you wish to be when you grow up?" No, who you are and what you will be is decided long before you even take your first breath.


The Family Business

Just a one-shot I thought up. I own nothing Royals related. Enjoy!

When you are born Royal no one ever asks "What do you wish to be when you grow up?" No, who you are and what you will be is decided long before you even take your first breath.

The late King Simon had wanted for his children to live and love as they wished, to follow their own paths, not the one predestined for them by genetics. As a boy he had wanted to be a fishermen, but the Universe had already decided his life's journey; to do what his father had done and generations of men in their family before him; to become King of England, to marry and to produce an Heir and a Spare to continue the family line. Simon had fulfilled this prophecy from his first breath until his last.

Prince Liam wasn't born to be the next ruling King of England; he wasn't bred for it; no one had taken him along and groomed him for this role in life. He was the Spare, born to be genetic backup, in case God forbid something ever were to befall his older brother, Robert. He was an insurance policy no one ever planned to need or use. And that was okay with Liam; he remembered being six years old and realizing the reality of the situation, that someday his eight year old brother would be the King of England, but that he himself never would be. He never wanted to be.

Fast forward fifteen years; it was a normal day like any other, except it wasn't. Liam was awoken to the tragic news that his older brother had died in a Military accident in Whales. His life was changed forever. He doesn't remember the car ride from his dorm room to the Palace, he doesn't remember running through the Palace. But he remembers the look on his Mother, Father and Sister's faces when he finally reaches them. It's true, Robert's gone. Liam has gone from being the Spare to the Heir within the blink of an eye.

"A beautiful pair of handmade boots from Hale," Liam had stood in the young saddle maker's shop talking, listening and holding a pair of leather boots. What the saddle maker had said struck a chord with the young Prince; "We have our dream and then we have our duty". This young man wanted to make leather boots by hand, not saddles, and he was very gifted at making said boots, but his family's business, generation after generation was to produce horse saddles. Like Liam he has a life already destined. These boots symbolized for Liam the idea of dream vs. duty. He knew what was expected of him, what his duty was, but what would his dream be this wasn't his life, his destiny? He couldn't answer question for himself yet.

" _I solemnly promise and swear to govern and rule the people of the United Kingdom, the British Monarchy, and its overseas territories._

 _I promise to make law and cause justice to the utmost of my power"  
_

Liam barely remembers the moments in what was supposed to be his swearing in ceremony as Prince Regent following his father's attack. He just stood there, with his hand on _The Book_ and repeated the words told to him by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It felt surreal; the fact that his father was lying in a hospital room, attached to a ventilator and here he was about to become the acting Monarch. What did he know about running a country? Absolutely nothing!

What Liam does remember was his Uncle Cyrus barging into the room and declaring he and his sister illegitimate, making him unable to rule. The look on his Mother's face and her inability to refute his Uncle's claims. And ultimately, Cyrus declaring himself the rightful King of England.

Sometimes you don't know how badly you want something until someone else threatens to take it away from you. What was supposed to be yours; your life, your throne, the weight of this world resting on your shoulders, the good of your country and that of your family now rests in someone else's hands. This life that you once believed was your destiny is now the life you choose. It is the life that you want and are ready to work hard for to deserve. You love your country and your people and you will do anything to be a part of making it great again. You now have to fight for that destiny.

Cyrus was never the rightful heir following the death of King Simon, but neither was Liam. Liam and Eleanor are in fact the King's children by blood, but Liam is still the Spare, because by some miracle, his brother Prince Robert is alive. So, as destiny had always planned on, Robert is now King Robert, the acting Monarch of England. But that doesn't mean that Liam doesn't want a part in the family business; he's too invested in it now, it is a part of his heart and soul, as much as his father still is. " A life lived and not destined" his father had told him. Liam is trying to find a nice balance; love and life, mixed in with the seeds of destiny.


End file.
